Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer (25 page)

“About the game tomorrow?” Mr. Auggy said.

“Yeah.” She swallowed a big knot. “And — about Aunt Karen.”

“What about me?”

Dad was nodding. His unseeing eyes had tears in them too, as if he saw Lucy very, very clearly.

“We’ll talk later,” he said. “Right now, I think Lucy has some calls to make.”

Most of the Dreams weren’t happy with what Lucy had to say on the phone. Gabe said, “We got me and the J-man, so what’s the big deal?” But Veronica cried, and Carla Rosa said, “Guess what? We’ll lose now,” and Dusty didn’t say much at all.

Only J.J. seemed to get it — maybe because she talked to him in person, since he didn’t have a phone. Or maybe because he knew about that “having to do things you didn’t want to do because it was right for other people” thing.

After all, he had Januarie.

“I know you guys will be fine without me,” Lucy said as they sat on her front steps, watching the Sunday sunset.

“No, we won’t.”

“That doesn’t help me, J.J.”

“It’s worse for you, though.”

Lucy peered at him through the dimming light. “Why?”

“You have to play against your own team.”

“That doesn’t help me either!”

“You gotta try to win,” J.J. said.

Lucy looked down at her hands.

“You gotta.”

“I know.” She sighed hard. “Sometimes I don’t want to grow up, J.J.”

“Too late.”

“Huh?”

J.J. looked at his hands too. “I think you already did it.”

“Hey, I just thought of something.”

Lucy looked at Sarah-of-the-long-ponytail, who was crouched next to her in the circle the Select Team had made around Coach Neely.

Coach Neely glanced at her watch. “What’s that, Sarah? We only have a few more minutes.”

“You used to be on the Los Suenos team, right?” Sarah said to Lucy.

“Uh-huh.”

“So you know stuff about them — you know, like, who’s a weak defender and who not to pass to — ”

“There will be none of that.”

Lucy saw she wasn’t the only one who stared at Coach Neely like she’d just had a personality transplant.

“There has been enough of that kind of thing here at camp,” Coach Neely said. She pulled her sunglasses down her nose and scanned them all with her blue eyes. Lucy had never seen her really look at them before, not like that, not like she really saw them. “We’re here to play clean, fair soccer. No ‘flopping.’ No ‘spies from the other team.’ All I want you to do is get out there and show that you can work as a team.”

So
that
was what that meeting all the coaches had to go to that morning with Hawke was all about. Taylor and Sarah had been
sure
it was an engagement party for Coach Neely and Coach Seth.

But right now, Coach Neely didn’t look all fluttery and giggly like somebody’s fiancée. She looked like a real coach.

“I know Rianna turned out to be the opposite of Fair Play,” she said. “But I want you to remember what she did bring to the table.”

“What table?” Patricia muttered.

“ ‘Play fair. Play to win, but accept defeat with dignity. Observe the laws of the game. Denounce those who attempt to discredit our sport. Use soccer to make a better world.’ ”

Lucy felt her chest puff out. Kayla looked a little taller. Patricia stopped muttering. Waverly actually smiled.

“Now — one question before we go out and warm up.” Coach Neely pushed her sunglasses back up her nose. “Who is going to be our team captain?”

“You aren’t gonna pick?” Taylor said.

“You’re the ones who are going to be out there listening to her. It should be somebody
you
respect.”

Huh. Mr. Auggy was right. She really was a hands-off coach.

“Lucy.” Kayla pointed a small finger at her. “I think it should be Lucy.”

Taylor snorted. “Who else?”

“Team?” Coach Neely said.

Everyone nodded — Bella hardest of all. Lucy swallowed a huge lump in her throat.

“Good choice.” Coach Neely stood up. “Then let’s go play some soccer, ladies.”

It helped to know that Inez and Mora and Dad — who took the afternoon off — and even Aunt Karen were all in the stands. She said if she was going to be a “soccer mom” starting in September, she needed to get started. Having them all up there, and imagining that Mom was with them, made it easier to stand in the center circle with one of the two refs and face Dusty, the Dreams’ new captain. Easier, but still hard.

Because Dusty looked as if she would rather hug Lucy than try to snag the ball from her once the whistle was blown. And the rest of the Los Suenos team was spread outside the circle staring at her like they were trying to figure out who she was now. She still wasn’t sure she knew.

“Ready?” the ref said.

Dusty just looked at Lucy. Lucy nodded.

“Then let’s play a game.”

It felt more like a dribbling drill than a game at first. Lucy got the ball immediately and took off toward the Los Suenos goal with no one on her. She could almost hear Coach Neely saying,
Take as much of the
field as the defenders will give you.

A glance behind told her the Dreams’ team was guarding all her
other
players, which meant she couldn’t pass. But she could drive all the way to the goal and maybe take a shot on — Carla Rosa?
She
was the goalie?

This was way too easy, and Lucy felt a pang of guilt — until a lanky black-haired figure was suddenly in front of her, one long J.J.-leg ready to capture the ball.

“To me, Lucy!” someone called out.

Patricia had actually opened her mouth to speak, from far down the field. Lucy executed an instep pass that lofted the ball — just the way Coach Neely had taught them. Patricia took it out of the air with her foot and volleyed it right into the goal.

A cheer went up from the crowd, but Lucy couldn’t bring herself to join them.

The Select Team scored again before the half, which was really only a quarter since they weren’t playing a full game. Still, both sides were sweaty and panting at the break. The Dreams’ faces were dragging the ground as they gathered around Seth. From what Lucy could tell, he wasn’t doing much to lift them.

“They’re actually pretty good at defense,” little Kayla said in the Select Team’s huddle.

Taylor snorted. “Not their goalie. But, yeah, we should have scored a lot more on them.” She darted her dark eyes to Lucy. “No offense.”

“Besides, it isn’t much of a challenge,” Sarah said, “Especially not for Bella. She’s mostly just standing down there at our goal by herself.”

Bella just shrugged.

“I almost wish this was over,” Taylor said.

Waverly gave a somber nod. “Yeah, I kinda feel sorry for them.”

“Don’t.”

All eyes went to Lucy.

“Don’t feel sorry for them — they don’t want that.” Lucy glanced at Coach Neely, who just nodded at her. “This is not telling any secrets or anything, but they’ve only been playing soccer — period — for six months. They’ve only been in two real games. They just want to play because they like it.”

Sarah flipped her ponytail “Yeah, but they’re not trying to get the ODP to invite them to try out like we are. We can’t really show our skill against a team that doesn’t play for real, and that’s all the ODP people want to see. ”

“Maybe that’s not all,” Coach Neely said. “Maybe there’s something else you need to show them.”

Taylor snorted. “That we can slaughter another team without gloating?”

Hawke blew his horn for the second half.

“Try to learn something from your opponents,” Coach Neely said.

“Like what?” Patricia muttered as the team trailed Lucy back to the field. “Just play because you like it?”

Lucy stopped inside the center circle and looked back at her — at the whole Select Team, who could shield and turn and fake, who knew when to dribble and when to pass and when to shoot — and who all looked like it was right up there with getting a tetanus shot.

She turned to Dusty, standing before her, still with a trace of the dream in her eyes — even with a goalie who couldn’t catch a ball to save her life and a wing who was too busy deciding which boy to flirt with and a couple of midfielders whose sharpest skill was chewing toothpicks. She and her team still dreamed, even when their field was ruined and their best player was taken away.

The ref set the ball on the ground. “Are we ready?”

“Let’s just play because we like it,” Lucy said.

“Do what?” the ref said, with the whistle already between his teeth.

“Have fun!!!!!” Lucy said again — and again, until every exclamation point showed up on every face on the field. Every face.

“Now we’re ready,” Lucy said.

The ref blew the whistle almost before the last syllable was out of Lucy’s mouth.

With a lit-up grin, Dusty kicked the ball out of the circle straight to Gabe. “Eat our dust,
Bolillo!”
she said.

“In your dreams!” Lucy said back, and took off after her.

For the first time since the game started, the ball stayed on the Select Team’s end of the field for longer than about ten seconds. Emanuel got the ball to the kid Lucy figured was Zen, who did some kind of weird-fancy fake around Kayla and made her giggle.

Veronica called, “To me, Zennie” and trapped the ball he snapped to her. Of course, she took her time trying to set up a shot, and Waverly stole it from her, but Gabe wasn’t having it. He got the ball away and sent it rolling to J.J., who went into a slider — and almost got it past Bella. She was down on her knee in a flash, and she gave him a big ol’ smile as she kicked the ball far down the field.

“Sorry!” Lucy heard Bella say before she took off again for midfield.

“No problem,” J.J. said back.

Lucy felt herself grinning. This was the soccer she loved.

Back on the Los Suenos end, Dusty was running beside Patricia as she dribbled. Only Oscar stood between her and the goal.

“Wall!” Lucy shouted to her as she came even with her on the other side of the field.

Patricia passed the ball off to her and ran around Oscar. He would follow the ball — that was just Oscar — and Lucy could pass it back to Patricia for another score. But to Lucy’s surprise, Oscar spit out his toothpick and stayed on Patricia, grinning wide and saying something that got a big ol’ guffaw out of her.